Michelle Anthony – God is provider
How is God provider in your life? We tend to think of God as provider by the thing he provides.
We focus so much on the provision we lose sight of God as provider.
When I look at the need – Where I am lacking that produces in my an anxiety.
I focus on the provision itself – What happens when it doesn’t come through in the way I am hoping it will.
When we focus on the need we forget about the story of what God is doing in the midst of provision. God is trying to show us who is his through the story he is writing.
What God is doing is far more important than what God gives.
John 2.1 – 11
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Foreshadowing – Jesus is foreshadowing of what will happen but we often miss it because we are focused on what is being provided rather than why it’s provided and to what they are trying to tell us about Jesus.
What do we see if we take our eyes off of an embarrassed couple and an alcoholic beverage
1. Confidence and authority in Jesus – Jesus walked in the authority. When we fixate on each individual story in the bible apart from the grand narrative of the bigger story and how it speaks into that we get into trouble
2. When we think of God as provider – We have to juxtapose those against what we want him to be. For example God as provider vs. God as polite. [Tweet “We would rather have a polite God than a provider God.”] We would rather have a polite God than a provider God.
3. Jesus is proclaiming who he is and what he is going to do. The wine represents the blood of Christ in Eucharist. Jesus didn’t just provide some wine he provided more than they could ever need or use. That’s the kind of God we serve. Jesus at the last supper said we will drink together again at the marriage supper of the lamb. Jesus from wedding to wedding was telling us he is enough. That he is provider.
[Tweet “We are looking for God to be God. Where does God need to realign us to the source.”]
It’s God’s design to provide. Because he is and already has provided. In John 2 it’s ultimately not about the wine it’s about the communion. It’s about communion with the creator provider.
– My Thoughts –
Such a great message we so often miss. The idea of God as provider in our current church culture has been co-opted by some in the evangelical church to mean something that the Bible never teaches. In response we do what we always do with truth that is misapplied, we either avoid it or over-correct it. We either don’t talk about provision and how God, as a loving father, provides or we paint a picture of a God that delights in our asceticism rather than in being the loving father who provides good gifts to the kids he adopted at great cost to his son.
Love how Michelle Anthony continued to point us to Jesus and what He is doing in scripture and in our lives and ministry.
We get caught up in our debates about wine and whether Jesus drank wine and lose sight of the God who desperately wants to commune with you. He wants to provide for you and reveal to you who is through what he has provided for you and revealed to you in scripture.
Jesus provides for us because that is who he is. When we over emphasis the gifts we fail to glorify the giver when we over react to the gifts we fail to glorify the goodness of God as provider.
God is not a vending machine that we approach with a crumpled dollar hopping that it will work this time. He is God. He is Holy. He should be feared he should be boldly approached because of Jesus. We have been given access and all we need by the provision of Christ life and death on our behalf. In him we have all we could ever want or need.
God is our provider. Thanks Michelle for the reminder.
